Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Epic Spellcasting
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Sepulchrave II" data-source="post: 1275433" data-attributes="member: 4303"><p>Ritual casting is a <em>big</em> problem. One of the characters in my campaign suggested <em>summoning</em> a slew of Immoths with multiple <em>summon monster IX</em> spells and deploying them in a ritual context. I said 'no,' but justifying it is difficult. <em>Gating</em> a bunch of Trumpet Archons or Planetars would also be a possibility. A 22nd-level Wizard can easily open 3-4 <em>gates</em>, scrolls notwithstanding. Whilst its possible to have in-game rationales for barring this kind of activity, there is no mechanical obstacle.</p><p></p><p>Unless you insist that all participants in an epic ritual possess the Cooperative Spell feat from T&B. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Burning a feat to accomplish ritual spells actually seems quite reasonable to me - especially if epic spells become the raison d'être of epic casters, which I really believe they should be.</p><p></p><p>I think it could be argued that, technically, you cannot have a mixed group of spell levels contributed at present: i.e. you could have 6 casters contributing 5th level slots, or 6 casters contributing 4th level slots; but you can't have 3 of each. This is nonsensical, of course. There should simply be a number of spell levels contributed --> mitigating factor relationship. </p><p></p><p>I don't think it should be linear, either. Maybe something like this:</p><p></p><p></p><p>Spell Levels Contributed................-DC</p><p></p><p>1......................................................-1</p><p>3......................................................-2</p><p>6......................................................-3</p><p>10....................................................-4</p><p>15....................................................-5</p><p>21....................................................-6</p><p>28....................................................-7</p><p>36....................................................-8</p><p>45....................................................-9</p><p>55....................................................-10</p><p></p><p>etc.</p><p></p><p>The bigger the ritual, the more 'inefficient' it becomes - perhaps a feat ('Ritual Expert' or something) could be devised to allow a caster to more effectively use rituals as mitigators.</p><p></p><p>Although this is wildly at odds with the way things work at present, each point of mitigatation should actually <em>mean something</em>. Also, we're talking about a much 'tighter' range of power at level X, because of no Epic Skill Focus (Spellcraft) or <em>+umpteen amulets of Spellcraft</em>. </p><p></p><p>And I <em>do</em> believe that Spellcraft should still be important. If its based on caster level, then multiclass casters get shafted again.</p><p></p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p></p><p>This is really tricky, and depends on what you consider to be the realistic 'upper end' of Epic Levels. 40? 60? 100!!? I'm inclined to say 40-50. Characters ought to be thinking about deification after that.</p><p></p><p>I think (rituals notwithstanding):</p><p></p><p>* A 25th level Wizard should be able to kill a target of less than CR 20 with a passing thought most of the time (<em>momento mori</em> style).</p><p></p><p>* A 30th level Cleric should be able to <em>animate</em> a reasonable army of undead - say 5000 zombies and skeletons. <em>And control them</em>.</p><p></p><p>*A 30th level Enchanter (or Necromancer) should be able to afflict a dynasty with a curse such that the first-born son of every marriage dies before the age of 3.</p><p></p><p>*A 30th level Conjurer should have a decent chance of <em>binding</em> an archdevil or demon prince. </p><p></p><p>*A 40th level Transmuter should be capable of being in two places at once.</p><p></p><p>*A 50th-level Psi-Savant should be able to draw plasma from the sun's corona, pull it across space at half the speed of light, and flatten a city with it. With effort.</p><p></p><p></p><p>How about Vile stuff? Any ideas?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sepulchrave II, post: 1275433, member: 4303"] Ritual casting is a [I]big[/I] problem. One of the characters in my campaign suggested [I]summoning[/I] a slew of Immoths with multiple [I]summon monster IX[/I] spells and deploying them in a ritual context. I said 'no,' but justifying it is difficult. [I]Gating[/I] a bunch of Trumpet Archons or Planetars would also be a possibility. A 22nd-level Wizard can easily open 3-4 [I]gates[/I], scrolls notwithstanding. Whilst its possible to have in-game rationales for barring this kind of activity, there is no mechanical obstacle. Unless you insist that all participants in an epic ritual possess the Cooperative Spell feat from T&B. :D Burning a feat to accomplish ritual spells actually seems quite reasonable to me - especially if epic spells become the raison d'être of epic casters, which I really believe they should be. I think it could be argued that, technically, you cannot have a mixed group of spell levels contributed at present: i.e. you could have 6 casters contributing 5th level slots, or 6 casters contributing 4th level slots; but you can't have 3 of each. This is nonsensical, of course. There should simply be a number of spell levels contributed --> mitigating factor relationship. I don't think it should be linear, either. Maybe something like this: Spell Levels Contributed................-DC 1......................................................-1 3......................................................-2 6......................................................-3 10....................................................-4 15....................................................-5 21....................................................-6 28....................................................-7 36....................................................-8 45....................................................-9 55....................................................-10 etc. The bigger the ritual, the more 'inefficient' it becomes - perhaps a feat ('Ritual Expert' or something) could be devised to allow a caster to more effectively use rituals as mitigators. Although this is wildly at odds with the way things work at present, each point of mitigatation should actually [I]mean something[/I]. Also, we're talking about a much 'tighter' range of power at level X, because of no Epic Skill Focus (Spellcraft) or [I]+umpteen amulets of Spellcraft[/I]. And I [I]do[/I] believe that Spellcraft should still be important. If its based on caster level, then multiclass casters get shafted again. *** This is really tricky, and depends on what you consider to be the realistic 'upper end' of Epic Levels. 40? 60? 100!!? I'm inclined to say 40-50. Characters ought to be thinking about deification after that. I think (rituals notwithstanding): * A 25th level Wizard should be able to kill a target of less than CR 20 with a passing thought most of the time ([I]momento mori[/I] style). * A 30th level Cleric should be able to [I]animate[/I] a reasonable army of undead - say 5000 zombies and skeletons. [I]And control them[/I]. *A 30th level Enchanter (or Necromancer) should be able to afflict a dynasty with a curse such that the first-born son of every marriage dies before the age of 3. *A 30th level Conjurer should have a decent chance of [I]binding[/I] an archdevil or demon prince. *A 40th level Transmuter should be capable of being in two places at once. *A 50th-level Psi-Savant should be able to draw plasma from the sun's corona, pull it across space at half the speed of light, and flatten a city with it. With effort. How about Vile stuff? Any ideas? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Epic Spellcasting
Top